About this blog

My name is Bill Hirt and I'm a candidate to be a Representative from the 48th district in the Washington State legislature. My candidacy stems from concern the legislature is not properly overseeing the WSDOT and Sound Transit East Link light rail program. I believe East Link will be a disaster for the entire eastside. ST will spend 5-6 billion on a transportation project that will increase, not decrease cross-lake congestion, violates federal environmental laws, devastates a beautiful part of residential Bellevue, creates havoc in Bellevue's central business district, and does absolutely nothing to alleviate congestion on 1-90 and 405. The only winners with East Link are the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and their labor unions.

This blog is an attempt to get more public awareness of these concerns. Many of the articles are from 3 years of failed efforts to persuade the Bellevue City Council, King County Council, east side legislators, media, and other organizations to stop this debacle. I have no illusions about being elected. My hope is voters from throughout the east side will read of my candidacy and visit this Web site. If they don't find them persuasive I know at least I tried.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Faulty Sound Transit Audit

An Oct 26th article in the
Times, “Sound Transit gets mixed reviews in state audit” apparently summarizes
the results from a 125 page report concerning State Auditor Brian Sonntag’s
audit of ST.It credits ST
for “adjusting well to the recession” but criticizes its “over-optimistic”
ridership forecasts and “its citizen-oversight panel lacks teeth.”Overall,
Sonntag said, he's pleased with the quality of the report and Sound Transit's
cooperation.The audit also
praised ST for “a policy called Phase Gate, where leaders examine the spending
trend at each step — engineering, bidding, construction, operations — before
moving ahead.”

These audit results sure don’t
jibe with what I’ve observed during several years of following ST actions. Maybe accountants use different criteria
than what I’m used to as a former engineer.What’s clear from the “Phase Gate” policy is ST’s emphasis is
on “construction” rather than “transportation’.They may do a decent job of construction, but fail to consider
whether light rail is the best “transportation” solution. Any competent
engineer would have recognized ST made a historic blunder when they selected
light rail rather than BRT for the center roadway.ST spent 10 years and millions studying cross-lake and
eastside mass transit options but never considered BRT as the “no-build”
option. It doesn’t take an
engineer to calculate ST’s 2008 DEIS prediction of 24,000 riders per hour from
a 4-car train every nine minutes is absurd.

A ST 2004 study concluded a
single lane could not accommodate all the cross-lake bus and HOV traffic.An engineer would not have ignored that
conclusion as ST did when they concluded a 4th lane on the outer
bridge would have adequate capacity. (And used that conclusion to convince a Kittitas judge to allow them to install light rail on the center roadway in a recent suit.) However, an engineer would have recognized adding the 4th
lane to in the 90’s would have benefitted all cross-lake commuters, but
particularly “reverse’ commuters.ST has let “planning” and “funding” problems delay the 4th
lane until 2016.

An engineer would not have
spent about $500 million on a North Sounder train program that drops commuters
off at the King Street Station, particularly since commuters already had easy
access to express bus connections into downtown Seattle.It’s hard to believe an audit wouldn’t
do more to shut down a transportation system that subsidizes each rider by
about $20,000 a year.ST latest
South Sounder extension to Lakewood is another example of millions spent in an expensive and
probably futile attempt to attract riders.

Even the audits approval of ST
“adjusting to the recession” is debatable.Most of the construction won’t begin for several years, hopefully
well after the recession has ended.ST budget “adjustment” is more likely the result of their realization
that fare revenue will be substantially less than predicted for far into the
future. (The ST 2012 budget predicts only 5% of their revenue will be derived
from passenger “fares”)They
initially predicted more than 100,00 riders daily by 2010 (not the 45,000 levels
by 2020 cited in the audit).The loss in revenue from only 30,000 current riders is substantial.East Link’s lack of capacity and
access belies ST projection of 50,000 riders by 2030, suggesting additional
budget problems.

About Me

My last elective position was class president for 25 “class of ’57” seniors in Armstrong, Iowa. I received an MS in engineering at ISU, worked at Boeing for 36 years before retiring in 1998. My wife and I moved into our current home in Bellevue in 1967 where we raised two daughters. Three years of unsuccessful attempts to persuade BCC to block EL are available on “extended session” meeting minutes. Copies of many were sent to all the media outlets, legislators, and others to no avail. I’m hoping this Web site will convince east side residents to query their own legislators.